Wenger calls for stricter measures to tackle doping, match fixing in football

London: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has sensationally claimed that plenty of cheating and doping is going on in football, slamming the sport’s authorities for not being strong enough to tackle it, and the Frenchman also called for stricter measures to deal with it. Wenger admitted he fears there is widespread doping after questioning why there are so few positive drugs tests during World Cups and other major tournaments.

Wenger also described this week’s revelations into match fixing as a tsunami for football and claimed the governing bodies do not take strong enough action on betting scams, doping and bribery, it further reported. Wenger said on a honest not he doesn’t think football authorities do enough on testing because it is very difficult for him to believe that among 740 players in the World Cup, you come out with zero problems. The Frenchman added mathematically that happens every time, but statistically, even for social drugs, it looks like testing would have to be better and go deeper. Wenger said he would support blood testing, adding UEFA is ready to do it, but it poses some ethical problems because everyone has to accept that they will check the blood and not everybody is ready to do that. UEFA, FIFA and the FA currently only use urine samples from players after matches and testers also do spot checks at training but Wenger says the willingness to abuse the system is quite scary. Wenger claimed football is full of legends who are in fact cheats as he dropped bombshells about match fixing and drugs, and even claimed many stars would agree to doping even if they knew it would shorten their life, the paper added. This week has brought back those memories after a Europol ­investigation found hundreds of games, including one of Liverpool’s Champions League games against Hungarian opponents Debrecen, were part of a huge betting scam throughout Europe, the paper said. ANI